“They are!” said the little girl.
“It sounds rather queer to try to impress people with fuss and show and food fixed up in fancy styles; but, if I can judge anything about that girl, she hasn’t reached the stage yet where she can appreciate anything but fuss and fancy and fashion. So we’ve got to use the things that will appeal to her if we want to reach her at all. If it were just Grace Kendall coming, or even the young man Brand, I would have things very plain and simple. It would be in better taste and more to my liking. But I have a notion, kitten, that, if we had everything very simple, that young lady with the fancy name would rather despise us, and set out to ride right over us. They talk a great deal nowadays about people’s reaction to things; and, if I know anything at all about that girl, I feel pretty sure that her reaction to simple, quiet things would be far from what we want. So for this once we’ll blossom out and have things as stylish and fancy and formal as possible. I’ve heard it said that there is nothing so good to take the pride out of an ignorant person as an impressive array of forks and spoons; so we’ll try it on Miss Clytie, and see if we can bring her near enough to our class to get acquainted with her real self. Now get a pencil, and write down the menu, and see how it reads.”
“But what are you going to have in the middle, Nellie, after the soup? Any meat?”
“Why, surely, round steak, simmered all day with an onion, and browned down with thick gravy the way you love it so well; only we’ll cut it into small servings like cutlets before we cook it, and nobody will ever dream what it is. Then we’ll have new potatoes creamed, with parsley sprinkled over them, and spinach minced, with a hard-boiled egg on top; and for salad we’ll make some gelatin molds in the custard cups with shredded cabbage and parsley in it, that on a lettuce leaf will look very pretty; and I’ll make the mayonnaise out of the yolks of the eggs from the angel cake. There’ll be enough left over to make a gold cake or some custard for the next day besides. Now write the menu. Raspberry fruit cocktail, cream of spinach soup, round-steak cutlets with brown gravy, creamed new potatoes with parsley, spinach, aspic jelly salad, angel cake, mint sherbet, and coffee. Doesn’t that sound good?”
“I should say,” answered the little girl with a happy sigh.
“We’ll have everything all ready beforehand, so that the serving will be easy,” went on the elder sister. “The butter and water and fruit cocktail will be on the table. We can fill the soup cups and keep them in the warming oven; and you and Harry can get up quietly; remove the fruit glasses, and bring on the soup cups. You see I’ve been thinking it all out. I’ve planned to buy two more wire shelves to fit into the oven. You know there are grooves to move them higher or lower; and I find that, if we use the lowest groove for the first, there will be room to set the eight plates in there; and we’ll just have everything all served on the plate ready, the little cutlet with gravy, the creamed potatoes, and the spinach. Then, if we light only one burner and turn it low, and perhaps leave the door open a little,—I’ll have to experiment,—I think they will keep hot without getting dry or crusty on the top, just for that little while. The only thing is, you’ll have to be tremendously careful not to drop one getting them out; they’ll be hot, you know, and you’ll have to use a cloth to take them out. Just think, if you dropped one, there wouldn’t be enough to go around.”
Louise giggled, and squeezed her sister’s hand.
“O Nellie, isn’t it going to be just packs of fun? I won’t drop one; indeed I won’t; but if I should I just know I’d laugh out loud, it would be so funny, all that grand dinner-party in there acting stylish, and those potatoes and spinach and meat sitting there on the floor! But don’t you worry; if I did drop ’em, I’d pick ’em up again, and take that plate for myself. Our kitchen floor’s clean, anyway. When do we bring in the salad?”
“Oh, we’ll just have that on the kitchen table by the door, ready. And then, while the people are finishing, you and Harry can slip out and get the sherbet dished out. Do you think you two can manage it?”
“Oh, sure! Harry does it at school every time we have an entertainment. The teacher always gets him to do it ’cause he gets it out so nice, and not messy, she says. Shall we cut the cake beforehand, or what?”